Persona non grata
by Pixel-0
Summary: Dark AU fic in which the first few episodes of S2 have been placed before Pollo Loco. When familiar murders arise in Seattle, Alec is forced to confront the man he thought he had conquered in his nightmares.
1. Beginning with the Barcode

It wasn't like he didn't know what the man looked like. After all, Alec saw the same person Max and Logan were now discussing every day in his mirror. He didn't need-and want-to be reminded that everything but nearly one million parts of his 3.2 billion part DNA were shared with the same whack-job that Max believed to be her rogue brother.

"…he'll strike again," Logan was saying as the image of a muddy barcode flashed on the computer screen. He continued talking, but Alec drowned out the cyberjournalist's conversation, clearly bored with the obvious statements Logan declared with such horror.

Of course he'll strike again, Alec thought to himself, tossing one of the many honey-roasted peanuts he had swiped from Logan's kitchen into his mouth. Why wouldn't he strike again? Boy may be demented, but he ain't stupid-unlike his "sister" who believes he, "just doesn't understand". He understands. Nobody performs sacrificial murders without some sort of higher intelligence. Tilting his head back, Alec proceeded to catch another scrumptious nut as Max and Logan continued their background rambling.

"Where was the body found?" Max asked, leaning over to peer at the screen.

"Couple miles north of here…Max you aren't actually planning to go-are you?" Logan questioned, naturally worried about his girlfriend's safety.

"I have to…I have to…talk to him. Make him see what he's doing."

Alec, from his lazy position on the couch, barked a sarcastic laugh. "You really think he's going to want to _talk_?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Max challenged, entering the living-room with an arched eyebrow where Alec was sprawled on the luxurious furniture.

"If this brother of yours-"

"Ben," she corrected him, while Logan watched the two X5s battle it out in his house. After all, since he had met Max, his penthouse seemed to be the weekly meeting place of rogue X5s, so one more confrontation didn't surprise him.

"Yeah, Ben. If he's really as psychotic as everyone claims him to be, the last thing he's going to want to do is sit down to a nice cup of tea and talk."

"How would you know?"

"A person doesn't spend a good six months in psy-ops merely because it sounds like a way to kill some excess time. I was put there to figure out what the hell could've gone wrong with Ben 'cause we do happen to share some genes," Alec responded, rising to his feet.

"Well then, you can just come with me," she shot back, tilting her head to the side in an attempt to examine his words fuller, with typical Max cockiness.

"Since when?"

"Since you obviously want to get revenge on him for that half a year in psy-hell."

Alec shrugged aimlessly as he poured the remaining handful of peanuts into his mouth. "Reading in between the lines there," he replied, chewing dully, "but hey, my life as a prized X5 soldier on the run from a secret government agency needs a little bit of spice, so sure, let's go."


	2. Your History Never Leaves You

Alec kicked lazily at a rock and watched it roll tiredly down a gradual hill before it disappeared from his peripheral vision. After ten minutes of wandering through the bland forest environment Max had brought him to, he was utterly bored out of his mind. He wanted to be as far away from this place as possible, while sleeping, eating, screwing…_Anything_, but chasing after his demented twin.

_"Have you ever been here, 494?" _

"No, sir."

"Do you know where we are?"

"I believe we are located in the Seattle forests a couple miles south of the Manticore base, sir."

"Very good. Now, tell me soldier, if you had to kill someone where would you do it at?"

"Sir?"

"On that rock over there? For display purposes?"  
"I'm afraid I don't understand, sir."

"Consider it in your favor not to understand, soldier."

Still, Max, ignoring his rather apparent distaste, pressed onward as she would occasionally crouch haphazardly to the ground, relentlessly searching for a sign of some sort. She said nothing to Alec, and instead began to pray for a chance meeting with her brother. Eleven years of searching for the others could not have led her to just Zack-and God forbidding-Alec too. How in the world could she end up with two X5 males who were both pessimistic cynics, despite their outside costumes? She refused to give into such thoughts and knew Ben had to be close.

Finally, after many dull minutes of tramping through the muggy humidity, Alec-having just accidentally inhaled a gnat-began to cough, and managed to choke out the question: "How much farther before Psycho Brother Ben?"

Max whipped around, prepared to bite his head off for interrupting her intense concentration, when something caught her eye. A glittering gold strand hanging from a tree behind Alec proved to be a necklace upon closer view.

Pushing past the irate male who was blowing his nose on his coat sleeve, she scampered over to the tree, and greedily clutched the medallion between her trembling fingers. She stared off into the distance, leaving the forest with Alec, and instead visiting the long dark hallways of Gillette once again. _"Tell us a story Ben…And what do the 'nomlies do with you?…Open you up and drink your blood…Look, you can see her heart…She's watching over us…"_

Alec, coming up from behind her, peered over her shoulder to stare down at the jewelry quizzically. "Huh," he grunted in his usual "I-don't-give-a-damn" voice. "Looks like _somebody's_ been attending church."

"It's Ben."

"Should've figured," he groaned. "Blue Lady-right?"

"_What?_" Max gasped, extremely surprised that Alec would know about something from her childhood. After all, he had grown up inside Seattle Manticore, nowhere near her home base of Gillette, Wyoming. 

"Long story, Max," was all he said. 

__

"Do you know what this is!?" 

"Answer me, 494! Don't cower from it!"

"Lives of many men-and the fate of your clone-rest on any information you can give!"

"Another body, sir…Found in New York City…he's progressing then…bring out 494 for psy-ops analysis…"

Now spurred with the impetus that Ben was closer than she had figured earlier, Max scuttled away with the necklace clutched tightly in her fingers as she left Alec alone, assuming he'd be able to find his way back to the city by himself. Alec, though, shoved his hands deeply into his black jacket pockets and stared at the tree where strands of human hair were intertwined with the gnarled bark. 

He could no longer hide. 


	3. Alcohol Brings Out the Hidden

Two days and another murder later, Max was no closer to finding Ben than when she had originally started. Having traveled to numerous churches in the Seattle metropolis, the Space Needle, and even dragging Alec-because "he might remember something important"-along in her continual woodland searches, proved to be all in a vain attempt. Around forty-eight hours later, she had found little-if any-traces of her brother, leaving her irritable and prone to snapping at not only Alec, but Logan as well.

On the third night since Ben reentered their lives, Max and Alec-along with the rest of the JamPony gang-were gathered at Crash for a night "to just let loose". Sketchy, in attempt to make some quick dope cash off bets, was playing pool with a grinning Herbal, while Cindy demonstrated moves on a girl so fine that even Alec-who was trying desperately to get drunk with Max-wanted to go after.

"You would think that I could find him…" Max mused almost sadly, running her fingers against the cool condensation on the edge of her mug. Dark circles from sleepless nights had formed underneath her deep brown eyes, and her hair hanged sloppily around her face, having been torn at by the forest tree branches and whipped at from the wind on her motorcycle.

Alec laughed in the back of his throat, smacking his lips together at how wonderful a potent alcoholic drink could taste after such a long week. "You people just don't listen to me-do ya?"

"What?"

Sharply setting his empty shot glass down on the geometric patterned table, Alec pointed a strong index finger at Max. "He doesn't _want_ to be found. Simple enough."

_"493 is using Search and Destroy tactics to lure his victims to sacrificial deaths. Understand, soldier?"_

"Yes, sir."

"You've practiced these in basic training?"  
"The Search and Destroy tactics, yes. The sacrificial deaths, no."

The captain smirked in amusement. "Good…Now here's the problem: These men that he's killing probably don't even see him before they're killed. He most likely sneaks up behind them and snaps the vertebrae easily. He obviously doesn't want to be seen or found."

"No…" Max argued. "He wouldn't be in Seattle without knowing I'm here."

"You sure? For having not seen this guy in eleven years, you seem to know quite a lot."

"I wouldn't expect _you_ to understand, Alec," she snapped and furiously grabbed her jacket, proceeding to leave and gun her motorcycle down the street to relieve the building frustration.

At once, Alec bolted upward and clasped her tightly by the wrist, preventing her from escaping as swiftly as she had desired. Gently, but with incredible firmness, he pulled her out of the doorway to a back corner and met her raging eyes.

"See? That's the problem, Maxie, I _do_ understand. I understand a helluva lot more than I'd like to." He chuckled hoarsely, emitting rancid alcoholic breath, which Max gagged on. "I _lived his life_," Alec hissed, his voice having taken on an angry tone as he pressed his tumultuous face close to hers. "They _made_ me live his life. After all, what's a better experiment than putting your subject-who _just happens_ to be a twin of Psycho Killer-in a real life stimulus? Take him to the bodies that you've gathered and shove his nose in the carcass just like a puppy that has messed the floor. Strap him to a table and burn a laser through his eye until he screams so badly that you have to gag him. Take him to the churches and _make_ him pray to some goddamned Blue Lady." Spasmodically, the side of Alec's face twitched; he was unable to control the pulsating nerves of corded steel beneath his tanned skin. "Try six months of that-all right? So, yeah, Max, I do understand," Alec said, releasing her wrist and turning away.

"Alec, I'm sorry…" she whispered, attempting to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder, now slightly ashamed of her earlier accusations against him.

He whipped around, facing her with sober-but menacing-eyes. "No, you go off, and you find your _brother_-ok, Max? Just find him and get it over with-all right? But, leave me out of it, 'cause I've already had enough of my share of his damn life."


	4. The One Woman Who Could Drive Them Both ...

The next day, after plaguing nightmares had prevented him from a pleasurable romp with the newest hooker he had acquired, Alec was meandering through downtown Seattle in the early morning hours, depressed and irritable. Sixty bucks down the drain, he lamented to himself, and all because everything had to go sideways…go sideways like it did back at Manticore.

It wasn't until the peroxide blond had deserted him had he realized that, in order to rid himself of the disturbing emotions, Alec would have to confront the problem head on. Which was why he was presently standing in front of The Sacred Heart Church, feeling his own heart rumble ominously inside his chest, and he began to wonder just how truly insane he really was. Clenching his hands up into slimy fists, he braced himself for an onset of malicious memories as glanced up into the musty gray sky where a cross readily accepted the future rain. Finally, with a firm shake of his head, he shoved the thick entrance doors open and entered.

He had never been inside a church on voluntary measures, and the thick candles, eternally burning with adoration and the blank eyed statues that ignored mortals' suffering brought it all back to him like he knew it would. 

__

"494, do you know who this is?"

"No, sir."

"Are you sure?" the captain sneered in his face, as a statue of a lady dressed in blue robes stared down at him, oblivious to the pain that she was causing him.

"Yes, sir."

"What would you do for this lady?"

He blinked unnaturally, not understanding the guard's question, and shifted hesitantly in his black military boots. He was suffocating inside of this holy environment and the church people with their quaint little hats and awkward stares terrified him.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"What would you do for this lady? Would you kill for her? Feed her teeth to give her power? Would you die_ for her?"_

Alec wiped his sweaty palms against the thick denim of his jeans, rapidly becoming uncomfortable with the situation he had placed himself in. But, he remembered, Manticore wasn't after him for being a twin of 493's anymore. He was safe here. 

He had to be safe here.

Wandering down a side-wing of the church, and without a second glance, he passed by the pews that were abandoned at sunrise, but soon to be filled with church people-as if he was really part of this sacred place. As if he wasn't really searching for his psychotic twin in a town where over half of the population was already mad to begin with. As if he was really just another lost soul in the wretched world, searching for some solitude from a fanciful Blue Lady. Sighing in exasperation, Alec wiped a hand through his hair, debating whether or not to just turn around, leave the church, and return to life as it was before he met Max.

But, just as he rounded a corner, he knew that he could not leave as soon as he had desired. All needed oxygen clenched in the backside of his throat, refusing to arrive to his mouth upon command, and when the room seemed to swirl, Alec dizzily reached out a hand to steady himself, unsure of where this phenomenal power was radiating. 

The Blue Lady, with arms outstretched, stood on a pedestal in front of him, eyes downcast and a sympathetic smile on her rosy lips. Yet, it wasn't the glassy eyes, totally unaware of the poisonous snakes, curling up like black intestines around her feet that startled him. Nor was it how her starkly blue dress could seemingly flow so smoothly, despite the fact that it was stone. 

It was the creamy canvas sack resting by her feet, smeared with blood on the outside, and littered with the trace of 493 that overwhelmed him.

Hesitantly, Alec took a step forward, feeling as if his flesh had been converted into the same stone that composed her body. He shouldn't have been there, and he was beginning to outright regret his decision to ever come to the church. Let Ben kill off all the citizens of Seattle. Let him run wild with his bowie knife. Let him do whatever the hell he wants, but leave me out of it, Alec thought, even though his feet had unwillingly taken him to the floor of the Blue Lady's altar. Swallowing his ever-rising Adam's Apple, he lifted his gaze up to her eyes and stared, wondering why a simple statue could drive both him and another man to the brink of insanity.

_"These are teeth, 494, are they not?"_

"They are, sir."

"Now, tell me, would you have any idea where these could come from?"

He paused, looking down at the assortment of bloody teeth the captain held out in an opened bag. "They appear to be human, sir."

"Very good. These teeth...what do they do for you?"

Again he paused, cocking his head, confused, to the side. "Sir?"

"What do they do for you?" the captain repeated more vehemently, unrelenting in his quest to destroy the twin of the man who had killed his brother. 

"They grind food," he replied, entirely perplexed as to why an intelligent captain would be asking such a mundane question.

"No...Do they give you anything? Power? Life?"

He shook his head. "They're just teeth, sir."

The captain blinked, now stupefied with the soldier's response, having not expected such a direct answer. "Yes, I suppose you're right...they are just teeth, after all. It's not like they could give power to a statue-could they?"

"No, sir, I suppose that they couldn't."

Alec lifted his hand from his side and allowed his fingers to ski over the smooth granite that composed the altar for the Blue Lady. Candles around the figurine's feet made the cool stone feel warm, and he watched the flames flicker and dance for a moment until he reached for the sack. After all, he knew what was inside; it wasn't like he hadn't ever seen blood before.

Almost in disgust, though, he reached over the burning candles and pinched a corner of the canvas between his thumb and forefinger, lifting the sheet. Below the fabric rested, scuttled around like bleeding pebbles, were teeth, looking nearly identical to the ones his captain had shown him less than two years ago. As he stood there, examining the pieces of bone, he came to a full realization: They were just teeth. Teeth couldn't give a stupid icon power. 

Chuckling at his own cowardice and sheer idiocy, he picked up one of the teeth, to prove to the world that he, Alec, X5-494, was not a crazy maniac like his twin. Yet, just as he had done so, having brought a single tooth encrusted with dried blood to eye level, he heard a voice behind him:

"Drop it...now."

Freezing in his position, Alec slowly turned around, still clutching the tooth-although not as valiantly as before-and faced the origin of the voice. Even though he had assumed what the identity of the voice behind him really was, he was still surprised when he swiveled around to meet the fierce blue eyes of his twin.

"Drop it," Ben repeated in hoarse whisper, raising his head higher, apparently not startled by Alec's similarity to his. His hair was unkempt as if he had spent several days asleep without combing it, and his eyes were sunk deep into their sockets, smeared with ominous black circles, while little red lines contrasted with his pupils. Alec's eyes flickered down to Ben's hand, where a new, fresh bag of teeth swayed, waiting to be delivered to the lady.

Alec, not wanting to cause deadly trouble, set the tooth back among the rest and then carefully folded the bag back to its original position so the teeth could be covered once again. After he was finished, he returned Ben's threatening gaze.

_"Do you know who this man is?"_

"It appears to be me, sir."

"No, 494, this is your clone."

"My clone, sir?"

"Yes, X5-493, suffering from a severe case of psychosis. Your job is to figure out what went wrong with him."

"Me, sir?"

"He is your clone, dammit, and you will_ figure out what is going wrong with him or else we will have no need of you. Understood, soldier?"_

He paused, and glanced down at the black and white photo the captain held in his hand. 493...part of the '09 Gillette escapees. God, half of them were mad anyway-a person had to be to escape from Manticore so freely-so how hard could it be to figure out what went wrong with this one? Probably just didn't agree with the government law of genetically engineered humans, so they deemed him insane, nothing more than that. 

Nothing at all.

Alec took a step forward and noticed how his clone reached inside his dark jacket as if ready to pull out a useful weapon. 

"Ben," he finally whispered and abruptly the other man's head snapped in response. 

"What did you just say?" Ben hissed through glinting teeth.

"Look…your name...I-"

Without warning, Ben launched himself forward in a motion too rapid and unplanned for Alec to follow, and grabbed the sane twin fiercely around the neck. They tumbled across the pews, abandoned in the early morning hours, hissing and kicking at each other, before Ben managed to drag Alec into a confessional, separated from the rest of the church society, where he pinned Alec against the wall, throwing a violent forearm against Alec's windpipe. Alec would have kicked outward for freedom, but apparently Ben had done a little bit of training himself, considering that he had basically plastered his twin against the wall. For someone who had escaped from Manticore after only about ten years of training, he was more powerful than Alec would have assumed.

"I'd kill you right now," Ben warned in a hushed tone, producing a knife from a pocket that Alec couldn't see. Sunlight trickled in through the screen of the confessional and made harsh shadows up and down Ben's already abnormal face. The blade of the knife caught the light, and Alec squinted against the harsh illumination, straining to see his twin. "But the problem is," Ben continued in the same manner, "you're just too damn valuable. I never knew I had a clone...so it's quite an honor meeting you." He grinned wickedly, and Alec caught the faraway odor of cigarette smoke and tried coughing, but found that grasping onto air was difficult. "Here's the deal, you tell me what you're doing here, and maybe I'll let you live."

"Maybe?" Alec responded in his typical cocky fashion, believing himself to be superior against this anomalistic rogue.

Lurching forward, Ben brought a stone knee against Alec's abdomen, causing the pinned man to gasp in alarm, having indefinitely lost all strength to fight back for the time being.

"Don't try to bargain with me. I'm a very impatient person, and I'm tired and all I want to do is sleep. You weren't supposed to be here, so it's your own damned fault you'll probably die. I don't want to sit here and talk about your life's outcome."

"You know, that's what I told Max...you don't want to talk..." 

"Max?" The shock displayed on Ben's face for that fraction of a second was so comical that Alec would have laughed if he could have.

"She's here...in Seattle...looking for you...she wants to talk..." 

"She told you about me-didn't she?"

Alec nodded blankly.

Ben merely smiled like an escapee from the psychiatric ward and laughed under his breath. "Interesting..." he mused. "So, you must be either 492 or 494...which one are you? I never knew I had a clone, but I'll kill you nonetheless. Blood, even if it does have most of my DNA will please her-regardless of whose it is."

"494..."

"Well, I'll make you a deal, 494. You saw that lady over there?"

"Yes." Alec's head was starting to spin, and the knife Ben held between his blood stained fingers was beginning to wobble in his vision. Had to fight back…had to get out of this religious asylum…had to-

"You will die for her or for me. Either way, I will give you a chance at immortality. You are to leave this church and begin to run like your life depends on it...because it does, you see. And, when I find you, I shall kill you. The only way you win is to kill me. And, then the stronger twin shall prevail...Are we clear?" His pupils vibrated back and forth like a drug addict's. This was fun to him. Killing people like flies was all a mere game.

Alec nodded weakly, watching black splotches form around his vision, unsure of another way to get his twin to relent. Suddenly, Ben stepped back, nearly causing Alec to collapse to the ground in fatigue. 

Throwing a knife down at him, which Alec rashly grabbed, Ben sneered. "Run while you still can. Run. Run away, 494."


	5. And the Storm Shall Choose Its Victim

Clambering to his feet, Alec stumbled down the aisles, as entering people for the morning mass gasped at his disheveled appearance before hurrying away out of the pew in alarm. Blindly, he flew through the exit doors of the church, mind spinning as he tried to process what had just happened and what would ultimately result. How many places could he hide in? Being in the city would put innocent people in danger, and besides, Alec didn't feel like having the police _and_ Ben after him. Maybe if he made it to the forest and got Ben out of the vicinity of the rest of the population, then maybe, there would be a chance at victory. And, if someone was to die, Alec didn't want Max to be present for her comrade's death.

Tripping, staggering, teetering like a drunk running for his life, Alec hurtled over the tree roots, which pushed themselves upward through the dirt; he slipped against the mud that was accumulating from the rain above and creating miniature monsoons beneath his feet. There were smears up and down his jeans where he had fallen, and twigs and leaves were etched into his hair, forming a crown upon his head for him; the victor who had somehow managed to outwit the genetic mistakes Ben had been dealt. 

Pausing to catch his ragged breath, Alec's fingers closed spasmodically around the knife's handle as he sank heavily against a tree, listening to the thunder roll above his head in a great multitude of reverberations. The sky, now an inky gray with the hint of ultimate blackness, not only sobbed hysterically down upon him, washing away his sweat and creating a slick field for him to run, but it also covered up the earth, which made it harder for him to see. He pressed his back against the rough bark of the tree, and peered upward through the branches, letting cool rain slide over his dirty skin.

__

"Your genetic makeup and his are almost the exact same. He is your twin, 494. X5-493 is what you would have been. What you could_ have been."_

Suddenly, a jagged scar of lightning splintered the sky in two as the thunder cracked in the distance. Heavy wind gushed through the trees, slashing at Alec's clothing and body before surging onward to torture another living object. If he remained out there, in that desolate Seattle forest, he was almost positive that the storm alone would destroy him. And, Alec was forced to remind himself with a grimace, storms came in many forms. Some that ripped across the land and some that raged in men's minds.

__

"You are the only one who understands why he is killing!"

"No, sir, I-"

A violent slap across the face sent his head ricocheting backward, snapping on its neck and causing blood to erupt from his nose. Fiercely, the captain grabbed him by the shoulders, pinching the skin between his fingers for even more pain and glared into his eyes which rattled in his skull.

"You do understand! Don't you dare tell me you don't!"

Shoving himself away from the tree, Alec continued onward, close to hysterics and outright fury. After two years of brainwashing, torturing, and running, he thought that he had finally escaped Ben. Escaped the pain of what being the twin of X5-493 had brought him. Even through the assassinations, the proud salutes or even the successful undercover missions, he had been unable to deny what his DNA said. All of his accomplishments would be worthless because deep down, past his blue eyes and blonde hair, or the finely toned muscles and superior lung capacity, everyone believed that he would snap. 

Snap like Ben had.

__

"Permission to speak, sir."

"Permission granted, 494."

"Am I to understand that I shall hunt down 493 and bring him back to Manticore, sir?"

"Loosely speaking, yes, soldier. There are other matters, though, that need to be addressed first."

"Sir?"

"Just a routine evaluation of your psychiatric behavior...totally routine...of course..." But as the captain turned his back, he still could see the lie in the commanding officer's eyes.

As if being the twin of 493 hadn't been wretched enough, he just had to get mixed up with Max. Everything would have been so much simpler if his partner was a perfectly normal Manticorian X5 female. One who would have willingly copulated, and then have been on her way without a single worry in either her or his life from that point onward. He could have handled that. Manticore stud service delivered to you by 494. Easy enough.

But, fate, the cruel devil that it was, would see otherwise. Alec's breeding partner turned out to be the sister of the very man he had been running from for so long. Then, after Manticore-the only home he had ever known-burned to the ground, Alec found himself associating more and more with Max, which dragged him even further into her world. And, as if that wasn't enough, might as well add in the fact that Ben, who should have been committed to an insane asylum for genetically engineered soldiers was out for Alec's teeth on the Blue Lady's pedestal. 

Life just wasn't fair, now was it?

"Someone must stop 493 and it will be 494. We will not rest until one of them is dead."

"You wish to sacrifice one soldier for another?" another man asked the captain.

They both glanced at him, shifting back and forth, wondering what they were discussing now from their position across the room. He seemed so unaware, so unflawed by the disease that had crippled 493, yet beneath the surface a mental storm was brewing.

"He's disposable. Capturing 493 will be the real prize."

Driving onward against the torrent of wind and rain, Alec tramped through the forests, feeling the onset of a headache and a cramp in his side. Suddenly, as he was clambering up a steep hill, he slipped and fell flat on his face; mud climbed inside of his nostrils and mouth, threatening to suffocate him. Yanking himself upward, Alec spat out the grit, tasting salty blood in his mouth where he had accidentally bit down on his lip during his plunge. Above, the lightning hissed and the thunder chuckled, teasing him for all of his pain that Ben had and was causing him. 

He managed to pull himself to his feet, weary and beaten after all of his running and panicking. Gazing upward at the sky, he wondered why, of all the X5s made in Manticore, he had to be Ben's twin. Why him?

__

"494 is not cooperating, sir."

"What? What do you mean?"

"He's refusing to assist in the examination of the 493 case."

"Fine, bring him in for psy-op evaluation."

They tore him out of his cell, as he kicked and screamed, knowing what lay ahead for he had overheard them talking and saw what these men had done to his fellow soldiers. Sedatives were injected into his veins, but they seemed to do little good against him, for he merely fought back against them.

"I'm not like him! Goddamn you!" he bellowed, using the disgraceful words he had been taught in Common Verbal Usage. "I'm not him!"

Hissing beneath his breath, Alec held the knife out in front of him, watching the rain form tiny crystals on the glittering steel. A knife that had probably been stolen from a fine pawn shop, and would eventually bring the death of one man. "Damn you..." he hissed again, as his breath formed steam clouds around his mouth. "Damn you back to the hell from which you came."

__

They strapped him down, while he screamed and spat like a rabid animal the entire way. Trying to tranquilize him was difficult, since the nurses failed to hold his arm still long enough to stab the thick syringe into a bursting vein. Yet, two larger X5s managed to cinch the leather straps good and tight around his wrists, his ankles, and his waist. Writhing under the bonds, he screamed obscenities that the staff ignored. At last, a nurse tapped a fluid filled syringe and plunged it down deep into his arm, releasing the burning poison.

"Leave me alone! Why won't you leave me alone?!"

Slowly, a drugged peacefulness came over his body, and the staff managed to position the laser through his eye and set up the TV for him to watch the words, "Duty", "Discipline", and "Mission" flash across the screen. 494 would return to them soon enough.

Angrily, Alec stabbed the blade of the knife into the side of a tree, just to combat his frustration. Still clutching the knife, he sank down against the wood, hearing the sound of blood thud in his ears. At last, after a brief moment of reconsidering what he was about to do, he turned around, determined to find Ben and kill him once and for all. Screw the good guy hero stuff, he fumed, "Blue Lady's" little servant would die.

Led by ominous thunder, he plodded back through the forests, following his muddy footprints that would make it easy for Ben to find him. But, at the moment, that was exactly what Alec wanted. He wanted to see Ben face to face again. See him and rip his damn jugular out to show the mental rogue what it was like to be tortured for merely being you.

__

He managed to overcome the sedatives that were supposed to silence him by screaming like he had never screamed before. Mind over matter-right? His throat burned from his own saliva, and his lips were dry, on the verge of cracking and bleeding before they finally inserted a thick plastic tube across his mouth to shut him up.

Yet, he wouldn't give up.

At last, one of the captains groaned. "God, let me take care of him. He's too damn strong. It's obvious that he is just as crazy as the other one." Then, lowering his voice to a volume he thought his prisoner couldn't hear, he said to the others, "Once we find 493, we get rid of this one, and there will be no more trouble."

Alec slid down the muddy bank, landing in an ankle deep puddle. Just as he had turned off to his right to investigate a formidable sound he had heard, a bullet whizzed past his left shoulder, sending blood and flesh flying. Instinctively, he reached up with one hand to protect the wound, glancing at it, and when he gazed upward, he saw the shadowy figure of Ben who stood a few yards away in the rain. 

"Ben," Alec growled, feeling his warm blood seep through the cracks of his fingers. The wind was decreasing, but the rain still poured down from the never-ending blackness above.

"Can't run forever, little twin," Ben mocked.

"You sneaky son of a bitch." Alec then chuckled with a cynical tone of voice. "The anomalies should have eaten you when they had the chance." 

"She'll protect me from them."

"Like hell."

"You wouldn't know anything about her," Ben argued, moving closer to Alec through the sheets of rain. "It's not like _you _would understand."

"Try me," Alec hissed, sick of being told that "he wouldn't understand", when, in truth, he understood more than anybody he knew. He had seen both Max's and Ben's world, how they interlocked, and the secrets that stood behind it all. He understood. "Max told me the same thing: I wouldn't understand-"

"Leave Max out of this. She's not important."

"Well, guess what?" Alec continued, having barely heard Ben. "You think I don't understand? I understand more than you-or Max-could even imagine." His tone of voice was raspy and a look of animalistic hunger had overtaken his eyes, resembling the same look a lion gets before the hunt. "You know, you've caused me a lot of trouble...more than a stupid rogue like you should be worth."

With a fierce growl, Ben lunged himself at Alec-believing 494 was weak amidst his babbling-as a pair of pliers were pointed outward to gouge Alec's pulsating heart. Quickly, though, Alec ducked, leaving Ben to topple onto his belly and then hastily rise as the pliers and knife fell, forgotten in the brush. The two men circled each other with one, each holding different beliefs about one another and relation to the Blue Lady. 

"I never wanted to leave Manticore," Ben snapped back, "so that shows how much you 'understand'."

"Quit putting words in my mouth. I never said you left Manticore on your own terms. Still, you left Manticore, and that makes you a rogue. A filthy rogue at that-"

"Shut up."

"That's destroyed my entire life all because you decided to go off and have a little bit of fun ripping out teeth-"

"I said 'shut up'!" Ben bellowed.

But, Alec wouldn't be quieted. For the first time, he felt freed from all of the pain Manticore had caused him, and now of all times, he would not be silenced.

"Do you have any idea what they put me through just because I was your twin? Burn a laser through the eye, gag me, bind me, slap me around...All. Because. Of. You. And, now you want to kill me?"

"I will kill you."

"Not surprising that you'd be a cocky killer too," he chuckled, peering through his matted hair and managing to discover a direct connection to his flow of adrenaline, which powered him with unmatchable amounts of energy. Alec kept fists close to his face in order to ward off any oncoming blows. The bullet wound still ate at his flesh, but he knew that for him to survive, he would need to ignore it.

Ben sneered, almost humoring Alec's sudden insanity. "You've always known that you will die at my hands-haven't you? Back at Manticore, they wanted me to destroy you mentally...and since I apparently failed there, I will destroy you physically right here. Right now."

Unable to find a proper comeback to the horrid truth Ben spoke, Alec merely glared through the rain at his twin.

"See?" Ben mocked. "You can't deny it. So, who's the insane one, now?"

"Die," Alec snarled and launched himself at Ben, who stood, ridiculing him. During Ben's descent, he managed to kick Alec in the chin, but fell to the ground nonetheless under the opposing momentum. An involuntary grunt of protest escaped Ben's lips as he was thrust onto his back with Alec's desire for blood equal to Ben's own.

The two rogues rolled on the muddy forest ground, trampling innocent ferns and destroying fragile puddles. Mud was smeared across Alec's face, masking bloody claw marks, while Ben's nose dribbled a bright red. Piles of dirt were flung into the air as one of them would attempt to scramble back to his feet, only to be relentlessly brought down to the ground by the other.

As one of the clones straddled the body of the other in a vain attempt to achieve some leverage to smash the grounded twin's face in, the bottom man reached up in a powerful motion and snapped the other X5's neck at the second vertebra. The move, although horridly simplistic, had completed the desired task, and at last, the fight was done. At last a victor could claim his throne.

The dead body crumpled down upon the remaining rogue, who lay for a minute under the carcass, gasping heavily and feeling slightly exhilarated in defeating his enemy. The death did indeed satisfy him, and he relished in the blood of his twin upon his clothing. Finally, though, he shoved the body aside and rose to his feet, kicking away the nearby knife with a disgusted flick of his heel, wanting to be rid of the poisoned instrument his twin had adulterated. Yet, before he turned and left the corpse behind, he grabbed the pliers off the floor of the forest and fixated them around one of the teeth of the body, knowing that there was a duty to serve the Blue Lady. He would have stayed to complete the entire body displaying, but he needed to keep on moving. Keep his mind focused on the important things, which didn't include the man he had met only an hour ago.

Once the tooth was removed, he straightened himself and brushed off what dirt he could from his clothing, almost lamenting the tear in his new jacket. The tooth, slimy with blood and saliva, slipped around his fingers as if it was just a trivial toy. Moving slowly through the darkened forests as the moon twinkled eerily overhead, barely masked by the depleting rain, he began to plan his departure of the city because he could no longer stay in Seattle. Briefly, his disoriented mind flickered over to the thought of Max, remembering how she had been mentioned in the conversation with his twin. And if she just happened to see him like he was-dirty and bloody-he wondered what he was going to tell her.

The End


End file.
